Roberts rises to Queen of the Eagles nest
AS the AFL Women’s season starts to wind down, clubs are starting to award their club best and fairest awards, recognising the stars of the season.
In this new series from Rookie Me Central, we take a look at the seasons of these club champions and what led them to have such stellar seasons.
Next up in this series, we take a look at the season of West Coast young gun Ella Roberts.
Roberts has come away from a stellar 2024 campaign with a first Club Champion award. She finished the count on 115 votes, finishing a mere vote ahead of second placed Charlotte Thomas, with Bella Lewis, Beth Schilling and Ali Drennan rounding out the top five.
It has been quite the year for Roberts, with a maiden All Australian blazer and an equal ninth finish in the W Award to go with her maiden Club Champion award.
Despite only being three years into her AFL Women’s career, Roberts plays with the prowess and confidence of someone who has been in the league much longer than that.
In 2024, Roberts averaged career best levels for disposals (21.4 per game), contested possessions (12.2 per game) and clearances (3.5 per game), while also kicking a career high six goals for the season. She also finished fourth in the entire league for contested marks.
In a side with legends of the women’s game in the likes of Emma Swanson and Kellie Gibson, Roberts is the face of a new direction for the Eagles.
For a side that has continuously struggled ever since coming into the competition five seasons ago, Roberts is at the core of a young group of talented stars going places under new coach Daisy Pearce, alongside the likes of Lewis and Charlie Thomas.
Roberts is now West Coast’s number one mid, who either playing on the inside or off half back can creative a lot of run and drive into attack for her side, and is now someone that opposition genuinely need to have a conversation about tagging.
Although the Eagles only picked up four wins this year, there is now genuine hope and belief that things are going somewhere positively, and Roberts is going to keep playing a big part in that.
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